Utilities Pilot Quantum Computing Amid Grid-Impact Debate
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- McKinsey reported quantum computing reached a "commercial tipping point," with $12.6 billion invested in quantum startups in 2025 — six times 2024's level — and over 300 companies exploring the technology, with revenue projected to grow from $1 billion in 2025 to $4.4 billion by 2028 and up to $2.7 trillion in potential economic value in the 2030s
- EPB will install a 36-logical-qubit quantum computer later this year and use it to plan locations and dispatch for 150 batteries across its 200,000 meters and 112 substations, initially running on a hybrid of quantum and classical compute built on NVIDIA's CUDA-Q platform
- Commonwealth Edison announced in 2025 it is powering the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, a 128-acre, multibillion-dollar campus on the former U.S. Steel South Works site where anchor tenant PsiQuantum plans the first utility-scale, error-corrected quantum computer
- Schneider Electric's Aparna Prabhakar warned quantum data centers need 24/7 cryogenic cooling to near absolute zero — "a load profile different from anything utilities have planned for" — while EPRI's Jeremy Renshaw countered that quantum's processor power use is "comparatively small" next to GW-scale AI training data centers
- Middle Tennessee Electric is piloting quantum with Middle Tennessee State University's QRISE Center, exploring applications for 82-plus batteries across its 365,000 meters and 2,200-square-mile service footprint
- Duke Energy is partnering with IBM Quantum to build "foundational quantum literacy," calling it "one of the lowest-risk and highest-value investments we can make" in something "potentially transformative" for utilities
Why it matters: Utilities are making first-mover bets on a technology whose power appetite experts actively disagree about, with EPRI's tipping-point forecast of 2028 to 2030 for 100-logical-qubit QPUs setting a hard deadline for the gated pilots underway at EPB, MTE and Duke. Whichever side of the load-profile debate is right, the utilities now building quantum, battery and cryogenic-cooling muscle memory will own the playbook when fault-tolerant computing scales.
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